1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and, more particularly, to a highly compact and portable printing apparatus capable of high print speeds.
2. Description of the Related Art
Printing apparatuses print on a sheet of paper an image corresponding to image information stored in a computer or an external storage medium. Based on different printing methods, printing apparatuses are classified into various types of printers such as an inkjet, electrophotographic, piezo-electric and thermal.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional inkjet printing apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a print operation of the conventional inkjet printing apparatus shown in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional inkjet printing apparatus 10 includes a body 11 in which an ink cartridge 12, i.e., a printing unit, is installed. A sheet of paper P is loaded into the body 11, and then fed in a direction marked by arrow X. The ink cartridge 12 has a print head (not shown) facing the sheet of paper P, and an image is printed on a surface of the sheet of paper P using ink ejected from the print head.
The conventional inkjet printing apparatus effects printing of an image on the sheet of paper P by incrementally advancing the sheet of paper in a direction X between linear back and forth reciprocating print operation of the print head in directions Y1 and Y2. The ink cartridge 12 ejects ink while moving linearly (Y1 or Y2) during which time the sheet of paper P is not moved. At the end of a linear movement (Y1 or Y2) of the ink cartridge 12, the sheet of paper P is incrementally advanced by a paper feed unit (not shown) in the X direction, and at the end of the incremental advancement of the sheet of paper P, the ink cartridge 12 linearly moves in an opposite direction (Y2 or Y1, respectively) while ink is ejected from the print head, thereby printing an image on the sheet of paper P.
The conventional inkjet printing apparatus 10 prints an image via the ink cartridge 12 reciprocating in the direction marked by arrows Y1 and Y2, perpendicular to the paper feed direction marked by arrow X. Since the ink cartridge 12 repeatedly moves and stops to change its direction of motion in a reciprocating manner, printing continuity is interrupted and print speed is adversely affected.
As more portable electronic apparatuses such as notebook computers, personal digital assemblies, and mobile phones, are put to use in ever growing numbers, the demand for portable printing apparatuses that can be connected to portable electronic apparatuses to output printed matter has increased dramatically. Accordingly, there is a great demand and need for printing apparatuses that are compact and portable, yet provide high print speeds without reduction in print quality. Due to the operating mechanism of conventional inkjet printing apparatus deploying linearly reciprocating cartridge 12 movement across a width of a sheet of paper P, the width of the conventional printing apparatus 10 cannot be made to be less than the width of a conventional sheet of paper P (usually 8½×11 inches or A4 size paper), and thus there is a limitation in the miniaturization, compactness and portability thereof, i.e., there is a need for a compact, portable printer that has a physical dimension less than 8½ inches at its largest dimension.